HeartSine Sponsors First Northern Ireland First Responder Group Located in the South of the Province

HeartSine® Technologies is pleased to be the official sponsor of the Crossmaglen First Responders, Northern Ireland’s first community first responder group in the south of the province and the sixth in Northern Ireland, which will provide emergency services care in and around Crossmaglen and South Armagh area.

Crossmaglen First Responders include 15 registered volunteers who have been certified in basic life support and Automated External Defibrillator (AED) training, and will be dispatched by the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service to attend to medical emergencies in their extended community of approximately 20,000.

“With the ambulance service forty minutes away, we recognized the need for emergency services in Crossmaglen,“ says Damien Martin, Manager chairman of the Crossmaglen First Responders. “With our CPR/AED training and our HeartSine AED and Mobile Rescue Kit, we can provide immediate attention to victims while the ambulance service is en route.”

Three volunteers each day and each night will provide first responder services beginning in October. Having an AED on hand can mean the difference between life and death for Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) victims as SCA is responsible for 100,000 deaths annually in the UK and Ireland.

“With many towns and villages in Northern Ireland quite a distance from emergency services, groups like the Crossmaglen First Responders are crucial to saving lives,” says Hugh Hennessy, Commercial Director for HeartSine. “We are pleased to provide our samaritan® PAD AEDs to these groups, and look forward to supporting more first responder groups across Northern Ireland.”